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Sunday, February 9, 2014

Russian Blini

Anyone else watching the Olympics? I hope so, because its officially Olympic Week on the blog. We have had it on pretty much non stop since Thursday. I was amazed by the little girl in the opening ceremonies. She had to be fearless to do some of those aerobatics. I also loved the technology behind the map that changed countries. We watched them with a big bowl of guy catching chili. The perfect cold weather comfort food.

In honor of the Olympics being in Russia, I wanted to do a Russian dish on the blog this week. My first thought were these snowballs... which are also called Russian Teacakes.

I then decided that blinis would be fun. I was a little nervous to try them. I however found that they were actually really easy to make. Plus you get to do this cool swirly thing with the batter in the pan. It makes you seem like a professional.

The fun thing with blinis is that you can make them sweet or savory. We went sweet serving them with raspberry jam and apple pie filling. The ideas for toppings are limitless: mushrooms, salmon, hazelnut spread, cream cheese or avocados.

Whisk together the eggs, milk, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Whisk in the flour gradually. Put about a 1/4 cup of flour into the batter at a time. Whisk after each addition of flour until it is fully integrated.

The batter should be runny. A little thicker than water. Start warming a medium sized frying pan over medium heat. I used a 9 3/4 inch pan. Depending on your pan you may need to add oil. Once the pan is warmed take it off the burner and pour in 1/3 cup of batter. Swirl the batter around the pan till it covers the entire pan.

The center of the pancake will start to bubble when it is ready to flip. This will take 2-3 minutes for the first blini, and like a minute for the later ones. Flip the blini and cook the other side for approximately 30 minutes. Repeat the process with the remaining batter. If you used oil, then you may want to oil the pan again.